Pool Party

Sam, Cole, and Alex splashin' in the pool.

Happy little beach bum!

Alex licking the drips of water coming down from his hair!

Alex kept splashing Sammy and making him laugh. It was so cute!

Two Sets of Wheels

Sam givin' Grams some love.

The Three Musketeers

No children were harmed in the making of this photo...he's just giving his cousin a kiss!

The cheeseball!

I think I mentioned before how Grams bought an extra Cozy Coupe for the boys to play in so they wouldn't have to fight over the one she had. Well, they are two happy cousins now!! Alex, Sam and I are staying at Grams and Grandpa's house for a few days to give Ryan some time to focus on studying for his ordination this weekend. We are having a good time already, we met Nate, Heather, & Cole at pizza hut with Mom & Jen and enjoyed some time to catch up. Cole came home with us for a few nights to Mom's house, so the boys get more time to play together. I think we are going to the mall tomorrow and to the zoo on Thursday, provided the weather cooperates, so I will post more pics later. (p.s. Miss you already, honey!)

Mackenzie Abigail Leonard

We just want to say a big

"CONGRATULATIONS"

to our friends Curt & Jenny Leonard on the birth of their daughter:

Mackenzie Abigail Leonard

Born Sunday, August 3, 2008 at 11:10am

10lb. 3oz.  --   21in

We are so happy for you guys and look forward to seeing you raise up your little sweetie in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!

"Playing Together"

Here are a few pics from last week of the boys playing together.  I mean, I guess you can't really call it playing together, but they seem to be at least enjoying each other's company!  Sam, of course, still LOVES to watch every move his big brother makes.  And Alex fluctuates between bringing toys to Sam and taking toys away from him!  But here's a little tidbit to make a mommy say "awwwwhh!":  Alex has been spending the last few days at Grams house and apparently he spotted a picture of Sammy on the end table, picked it up, smiled really big and started talking to it!  Maybe they will be friends after all!

The Life of the Party

"the cheering section"

"a fair and impartial ref?"

Sammy & Alex go with us to most of the Youth Activities that we have. Often I take them home if it goes too late, especially if it's a Saturday night and they need to get a good night's sleep before church the next day. But they love being there. Sam loves to watch everybody and to get lots of loves from all the teens and give them his huge dimply smile. Alex loves to run, run, run. We often say that the team that can play a game with our son running around underfoot and not only win, but not injure the little guy gets extra points! The teens really seem to like having the kids there and are so sweet with them. These pics are from the volleyball games we had last weekend. You can see more pics of our activities on our youth group blog--just follow the link in the column to the right.

A Few Weekends Ago...

...we took a quick trip to Grams and Grandpa's house to see them and Uncle Matt who was there for the weekend. We had a good time grilling, playing in the yard, and watching movies. It was quite interesting at night since there were people sleeping in about every room available and babies that kept getting scared by all the thunder from the crazy storm we got...but most of us took a quick nap in the afternoon to make up for lack of sleep! It was nice to see Matt and to spend some time together. Mom got one of those Cozy Coupes off of Ebay, and the little boys were "sharing" it all weekend! :-) Grandmother that she is, she went out and bought another one so they each can have one next time they are together!

Aunt Jen = Fun!!

About a week and a half ago Aunt Jen came for a visit. She was here for 5 days, and for 5 days Alex had a constant . He loved it! And Sammy had somebody to hold him as much as he wanted. He loved it, too! A little spoiling from an Auntie is loads of fun. We didn't head out of town or go on any big trips, but we had a great time just hanging around here, playing with the kids, and watching HGTV! Thanks for coming and for your extra hands for a few days, Aunt Jen!

My Baby Has a Tooth!

We now know why Sam was such a crabapple last week and why he kept waking up 2 times a night...He cut his first tooth! And it's a sharp little guy, too! No more teething on mommy's fingers, for sure! Of course I can't get a pic of it yet, there is too much drool and too many fingers in the mouth to get a good view! My baby's growing up!

The Chatterbox

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books
Last week Aunt Jen was here for a visit. Alex hasn't really been sitting on the potty much lately what with all the family visitors and trips. It's just been too hectic. But I guess he wanted to show off what he knows about the potty to Aunt Jen because he up and decided to show the potty some attention! Here's what he has to say about it! He still does his "chatter" all day long, though he has almost 30 words that he knows now. I think there are a few mixed into this clip.

The Coons' Visit

A little over a week ago the Coons came for a visit and spent some quality Nana and Papa time with the boys. Unfortunately the boys had head colds the whole time and I caught a stomache flu at the end of the week, so we weren't able to get out and do too many things, but we had a lot of fun playing here at home and actually remembered to take a good number of pictures!

Alex's 2 year Photo Shoot

People told me that the 2 year photo shoot would be the hardest.  I thought they meant hard because of the "terrible twos," but that wasn't the tricky part of our photo shoot-- Alex behaved like a gem!  The thing was just getting him to stay still long enough to actually get a shot!  We were scheduled for 10am, and since there was nobody else scheduled until after 11am, the photographers took their time with us and eventually got a few shots that worked!  The key to our success...a toy cell phone they had as a prop (not my choice of prop, but hey, it did the job) that really clicked with my son because of his obsession with cell phones!  (Apparently Walmart's photo studio is owned by the Sears Photo studio, and is switching over to the digital program they use, so hopefully next time I have a photo shoot to post I will be able to do so from their website and not have to do a "gettofabulous" job like this one! Oh, well, I wanted to share the cuteness anyway!)

This one is sweet.

I like to do the pics I put on the shelf for our "family photos" in black & white.

This is the look that says, "Dude, did you ask if you could take my picture?  I'm kind of on an important call here."

A typical pose of a kid having fun!

Giggly Goo

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Our 4th of July

First we got a new (much needed) stove!

our old stove...'nough said.

use those muscles man!

Alex hard at work...

Alex and Ryan taking a quick break from installing the stove to get some major fort action out of the box!

The transformation of that side ofm y kitchen...next comes the fridge...I'll keep you posted!!


Then we had our own little celebration complete with family fun and a mini fireworks display!

Sammy hangin' out in the backyard

Alex loves pop-ices!

We opted not to try and drag our toddler and baby out to the fireworks display in town and had our own little show instead.

Alex (of whom I expected to be excited) did not like the fireworks. He ran to Daddy and cried and clapped when they were done!

Sammy (of whom I expected tears) did not even flinch!

Sammy is 5 Months Old

On Tuesday Sammy turned 5 months old, and he's been a very, very busy boy! He now rolls onto his tummy almost immediately when you lay him down. And, to his mother's horror he has started pushing up on his knees as if to crawl. He hasn't figured out what to do with his arms yet, so they get stuck under him, but he's so strong with those legs that he pushes himself forward without his arms! I'm trying to get a good video of it, but he so often winds up frustrated and in tears! Half of me wants him to learn to crawl so that the frustration can end, the other more sane half of me does NOT want him to crawl at such a young age. Call me crazy but I like the freedom of knowing I can put my kid down and he can't go anywhere or get into anything! With Alex I had that freedom until 9 months old--don't think that will be the case with Sammy. He's on a mission and learning fast!

Earlier this week Sam found his toes. He's not really into chewing on them yet, just likes to hold them. He's really been using his hands so much more lately, grabbing toys on his excersaucer, mommy's hair and earings (ouch), his toes, and stuffed animals.

About 2 weeks ago Sam had his first taste of oatmeal.

Now he LOVES his oatmeal because I put applesauce in it. He can't seem to decide if he likes green beans or not. And yes, for those of you who have asked me about it, I am making homemade baby food again. I didn't really want to because it is so time consuming, but Sammy seems to have the same reactions as Alex did with the acid preservatives they put in many of the canned foods, so I am just going to buck up and do it!! Plus, I save a lot of money--with just $2.00 worth of frozen green beans I made 32 jars of baby food, saving us $10.00!!!

I'm not the kind of photographer that often takes fabulous shots, but somehow I got this one the other day and I LOVE it! This is a typical Sam pose, watching the world with wide eyes!

Alex is 2 years old!!

Can you believe the boy is 2? We can't! But even though he definitely has moments when the "terrible twos" shows through, we are so glad Alex is our boy and wouldn't trade him for the world! He is a joy to our family and puts smiles on our faces every day! We had a fun birthday weekend with Grandparents. We kind of spread the celebration throughout the day on Saturday and even on Sunday when we went for ice-cream, just to keep it from being too overwhelming for the kid. Even still I think some of the sugar-high/attention-overload is still wearing off!! A big thanks to Grandpa and Grams and Grandpa and Grandma Mitts for driving all this way to celebrate Alex's bday with us. We all had a great time!